5 Reasons Your Business Still Needs a Blog

Some people think blogging isn't necessary anymore. What's the point of writing a post for a blog when you could write a Facebook or Twitter post in a less time, with a lot less effort?

In the amount of time it takes to write one 400-word blog post, you could have created dozens of tweets, a handful of Facebook posts, or posted pictures to Pinterest or Instagram.

This has been a topic of debate for years now. Companies used to start blogs as a way to start and continue conversations and give their brand a voice.

Sure, the explosion of social media has given us tons of other ways to do that, but that doesn't mean blogging is unnecessary. If anything, it's more important. Your business needs a new way to set itself apart.

If I wasn't afraid of boring you, I could easily list 50 reasons why there should be a blog on your company's website. But I care about you, so I'll spare you my rant and leave you with 5 reasons your business should have a blog:

1. Readers want fresh content

No matter how beautiful or fun your company's website is, it will eventually bore your visitors without fresh content. They can only visit the same static content. They will get used to the incredible design, they will come to expect the cool features they once found surprising, and they will know all of the information found in the website's copy.

If you have a blog, you have a reason for visitors to come back. As soon as you publish a blog post, there's now information on your site that your audience hasn't seen before. Sure, they may not actually visit your website to read the post if they subscribe to your blog through RSS or email, but you're still reminding them that yes, you still exist.

2. Search engines want fresh content even more

The future of SEO puts tremendous weight on fresh, high quality content. As stated in the infographic we shared last week, content fuels organic search traffic. New search engine algorithms like websites that are frequently adding new information more than sites that remain static.

Continually adding high quality content to your company's website means search engines will find and index new content when they crawl your site. So not only will blogging help your search engine rankings, it will also mean more pages from your web site showing up in search results, giving you even more visibility.

3. Blogging establishes credibility

I'm going to take a guess and say your company either provides a product or service. Since you're business hasn't crashed and burned, you probably know a thing or two about said product or service. In fact, you probably know a lot about the type of product or service your company provides, as well as the umbrella industry it fits into.

Blogging is a great way for businesses to show what they know, instead of having to tell everyone, "We know what we're doing!" Use your company blog to talk about industry news and trends, adding your own spin and insight to establish your company's expertise on the subject. You can also use your business's blog to provide extra resources for your customers and potential customers. Knowledge is power, right?

4. Blogging gives readers something to share

Yes, social media has changed the world of blogging, but one could argue it's for the better. Blogging and social media go together like peanut butter and jelly. I rarely encounter blogs that don't use social media to promote and share their content. Even when I do, the blog's readers are sharing the content themselves.

You want people sharing links to your company's website on social media. People are more likely to share an interesting blog post than they are a business's "About Us" page or a list of the services it offers. You need to write blog posts that readers will want to share. If a reader is impressed with the blog post, there's a good chance they'll look around other areas of your website.

5. Blogging builds business relationships

Think about the number of connections that could be made with a single blog post: the people that read it, the people that share it, the people that see the shared link, the people that mention the post, the people mentioned in the post, etc. That's a whole lot of potential relationships.

By nurturing these relationships, these connections could be use to advance your business. Readers may wander from your website's blog over to the products page and make a purchase. People mentioned in the post may contact you about some sort of partnership. You never know what opportunities will come from a single blog post.

Does your company have a blog? How does it fit into your marketing strategy? Share in the comments!

Brittany Berger

Brittany Berger is the digital content supervisor at eZanga.com and a graduate of the University of Delaware, where she studied communication, interactive media, and English. She is a compulsive bookworm, addicted to Netflix, and can't listen to music without dancing to it.